QUESTIONNAIRE RESEARCH
DESIGN
Keywords; tool of data collection; constructing a
questionnaire; follow-up procedure
; cover
letter; ranking questions; double-barrel question; secondary information
Having
stated your research problem or topic, chosen your methodology, reviewed the
literature and completed the preparatory stages, you now have to develop a
research design. But what precisely a research design is?
There
are many definitions of research design. Here are some examples from leading
authors, reproduced.
1. The
research design consist the blue prints for the collection, measurement, and
analysis of data. It aids the scientist in the allocation of his limited
resources by posing crucial choices.
It
includes an outline of what the investigator will do from writing hypotheses
and their operational implications to final analysis of data. A structure is
the frame work, organization or configuration of the relationship among
variables of the study. A research design expresses both the structure of the
research problem and the plan of investigation used to obtain empirical
evidence on relations of the problem.
These
definitions differ in details but together they give the essentials of a
research design.
First,
the design is a plan for selecting the source and types of information
used to answer the research question.
Second, it
is a frame work for specifying the relationship between the study variables.
Third,
it is a blueprint that out line each procedure from the hypotheses to
the analysis of data.
The
design provides answers to such questions like
a. What
techniques will be used to collect data?
B. what
kind of sampling will be used?
c. How
will time and cost constraints be dealt with?
This means a research design
indicates that
A. how your data will be collected,
analyzed and interpreted,
b. And the type of sampling or how
much data?
c. Method of data collection &
analysis to be used.
In practical term it includes
A. scope
of the study
B.
importance of the study
C.
objectives / purpose of the study/Research Question
d. Tools of data collection
e. Sample and sampling
f. Limitations of the study if any
G. time frame
and Cost if any (this applies to a project type research) not Ph.D. / academic
research
TOOL
OF DATA COLLECTION
You have
to select a proper tool of data collection so that there should be no in-built
errors in the data at the analysis stage.
Collecting
the relevant data is equally as important as the way you draw your sample. Data
collection method will vary according to the type of information you need, the
research question and the resources at your disposal. For example
Questionnaire data will tell us about how
people felt about a particular situation like earth quake but will not be
consistent with how they will actually behave when the situation in
question arise.
CORRESPONDENCE/
(QUESTIONNAIRE)
Questionnaires are one of the most used social
research techniques
It is a document containing a set of questions on a
specific topic, for respondents to complete themselves to elicit information (a
self- completion questionnaire)
Questionnaires are mostly used for postal surveys
but they can also be distributed by hand e.g. in a school/ college/ work place
etc. questionnaire follows a standardized
format in which most questions are pre-coded to provide a list of
responses for selection by the respondents.
The questions must be so phrased so that they are
immediately comprehensible because respondents will not be able to obtain
assistance with anything they do not understand.
Advantages
and disadvantages of questionnaire
·
The big advantage of self–completion questionnaire
is that a large population can be surveyed cheaply.
·
Costs are lower as interviewers are not used.
·
Pre-coding and computerization speed up analysis. It
is also possible for respondent to fill it a time convenient to them.
·
You can use internet to send the questionnaire.
·
The biggest disadvantage of postal surveys is that
the mortality rate is high and in many instances the response in less than
50%.
·
It cannot be served to illiterate people.
·
In many instances the responses are incomplete,
illegible and incomprehensible.
·
The researcher must also have information about the
target population in advance.
Constructing
a questionnaire
There
are five aspects you need to consider when constructing a questionnaire, namely
A. Cover letter
B. The instructions
C. The structure of the questionnaire itself
D. Lay out and
E. follow-up procedure
a.
Cover letter
A cover letter is not only a courtesy letter but it
is essential and need to be properly worded, if you want people to take your
survey serious and be willing to participate.
The cover letter can make a difference between
whether people will return your questionnaire or agree to a telephone/ personal
interview. Be ready for many drafts to get the right tone and form of your
covering letter.
Contents
of the covering letter, your covering letter must mention
·
What organization you represent (letter head of the
organization).
·
Who you are (introduce yourself and your role in the
study).
·
What the survey is about (What the survey is for and why it is important
·
What it is aiming to achieve (optional).
·
How
the person was chosen and why his response is important
·
Assurance
about anonymity and confidentiality of the information and informant
·
About
their right not to participate
·
If
you are using a code no. to follow non-respondents, you need to explain it,
·
General
information about the research procedure whether they will be contacted again,
who will interview them, reply dates etc.
·
Contact
no. for further questions
·
Example
of a covering letter
Dept.
of Education and Research,
University of Peshawar.
Nov. 12, 2008
Dear Sir/ Madame;-
I am a part
of a research team employed by the University of Peshawar. We are researching why people send their
children to private schools than public schools which cost them a lot of money.
Please
fill in the enclosed questionnaire. Everyone who has a child in a private school
is sent one questionnaire. Your response will help the policy makers in
improving the quality of education, if that is the reason.
Your
participation is totally voluntary. You can refuse not to do so, if you do
this, your help will be highly appreciated.
You will see that although personal questions are
asked; you do not identify yourself. The information you provide, is completely
confidential. Only your post code, age and gender are requested so that
comparison can be made on the basis of age, sex and area. The University will
not know who answered the survey, it is sent to us not the University.
Please ring me on the above telephone no. if you
have any query about us or the project.
Your time in
filling the questionnaire will be greatly appreciated. It should not take more
than ten minutes.
When you have completed the questionnaire, please
send it back to us in the provided pre-paid envelope addressed to us not later
than ten day after you received it.
Thank you
for your time and cooperation.
ABC khan
Research Associate
B.
instructions
There are three types of
instructions you need to give when sending your mailed questionnaire or having
a structured interview.
i. General instructions about the whole survey; -
These are normally included in the cover letter but sometimes they are repeated
as the introductory paragraph. The general instructions include like,
·
who can fill the questionnaire,
·
how you want the questions answered and
·
in what order ( that all questions be answered)
·
How to return the document and by what date?
The
second type of instructions include introduction of the different parts of the
questionnaire. These are important to have ‘flow ‘of the questionnaire e.g.
In this
section you are asked some back ground information so that we should know what
different types of people think about the private schooling
At the
end of the questionnaire you must thank the respondent and if possible, give
your contact no. for further questions if you are asked.
The
third type of instructions pertain to specific guide liens about some questions
like
Pl.
tick-mark one box only which suits most to your housing conditions
The house you live in, is
Owned by
self/ spouse owned by self and others
Privately
rented public rented
Rent
through organization Free
You can
also filter questions if not applicable like if no,
Please
go to question __ 19 etc.
C.
Questionnaire structure
A good questionnaire is structured similar to a good
conversation. It is advisable to establish a rapport with the respondent at
first.
Ask enjoyable, interesting questions at first which
are not too difficult, challenging or personal.
Guide the respondent then through series of
questions which are grouped into topics or sections. It is advisable to move
from easy to hard, concrete to abstract, from simple to complex questions, from
impersonal to more personal or sensitive questions. It is more likely that respondents
will answer personal questions like
age, sex, marital status easily.
Thank the respondent
Remind the return of the questionnaire
d.
Lay out of the questionnaire
Lay out
and presentation of your questionnaire does matter especially for mailed
questionnaire. They may not matter in case of interview schedules as they are
meant for the interviewers eyes.
It is
now accepted that color of the envelope and paper will attract a response rate
on your questionnaire.
Most researcher advice one side printing of
the page. People forget to answer on the second page mostly. It will leave more
space for answering in detail/extra notes on the blank page.
Take
advantage of the different font sizes on the computer to make a distinction
between a question and instructions.
·
Instructions/
filter questions should be visible.
·
Do
not make the page look over crowded.
·
Leave
enough space for answer to open-ended questions.
·
Leave
enough space for column on the right for computer coding.
e.
Follow –up procedures
When sending out
questionnaire, it must be thought what to do in case of non-response.
You
can do one of these.
1. Give an identity no. to each questionnaire. You
will have a track record of those who have returned and those who did not.
2. You can send a reminder post-card, after a week
after the survey was due thanking those who have replied and reminding those
who have not.
3. After another week or so another reminder in the
shape of a new questionnaire and a new cover letter is sent to those who did
not reply.
4. You can also make telephone calls but it is
important to note that
You need not to harass the respondent. They have
every right to refuse and not to participate.
Type
of questions
Two
types of questions can be asked through questionnaire, namely,
1. Closed questions and
2. Open ended questions.
Example
of open ended question
We would
like to hear from you any further comments ---------___________________________________________________
Closed ended questions can be of many types like;
a.
Quantity or information
In which year did you enter on to
the full time degree______?
b. Category;
Have you ever been or are you now involved
almost full time in domestic duties (as housewife/ house husband)
Yes (currently) Yes (in the past) Never
C. List
or multiple choices
Do you view the money you spent on higher
education as something any of the following;-
A
Luxury and investment a necessity
A
gamble a burden a right
None of
these
D. Scale
How would you describe your present
attitude to higher education?
(Please tick one answer).
Very
positive mixed/neutral negative very negative
E.
Ranking questions;-
What do you see the main purpose (s) of your
higher degree study?
Please
rank all those relevant in order from 1 onward.
Personal
development Career
advancement
Subject
interest
Recreation
Fulfill
ambition keeping
stimulated
Others (Please
specify)
F.
Complex grid/ table form
How
would you rank the benefits of your degree for each of the following;-
Nature
of questions
Questionnaire
questions can be about
1. Attributes
2. Attitude
3.
Beliefs
4. Behavior
and many aspects of life. You have to word the questionnaire according to the
nature of the study.
1. ATTRIBUTES
These
like questions are about the personal or socio-economic characteristics .g.
age, sex, education, income, religion, marital status etc.
Behavior
questions
Behavior
constitutes what the individual has done, is doing and may possibly do in the
future. E.g.
Have you
ever belonged to a political organization/
Yes ______ No________
Are you
a member of any political organization/party at the moment/
Yes
_______________ No__________________
Do you
intend to join any political organization in future?
Most
likely______ Most unlikely_________
Don’t
know___________________.
(You need to explain and define a
political organization)
Belief
questions
Beliefs
can be assessed by asking whether some thing is true or false
E.g. the
no. of drug addicts diagnosed as HIV positive, have grown rapidly during the
last two years true / false
Attitude
questions
Attitude
implies evaluation and is concerned with how people feel about something /
issue. These like questions employ scales: a statement is made and individuals
are asked to indicate their level of agreement in a positive or negative
direction e.g.
I think
all cars should be made to drive on CNG
Strongly favor
Favor
Neither in favor nor against
Against
Strongly
against
SOME
MORE GUIDELINES
While
asking questions or preparing your questionnaire, please keep in mind the ‘Do’
and the “Don’t” as follow;-
1.
Relevance of the questions
It is
important to consider the ability and willingness of the respondents to answer
the questions. It should be assessed that those to be studied will have the
knowledge to answer the questions? Whether the questions are relevant to them?
Whether they are willing to reveal the information?
2.
Clarity
It is important that there should be no
ambiguity in the questions and worded so that they are easily comprehended by
the respondents.
Although
this applies both to questionnaire and interview schedule, but in case of
interview schedule there is someone to guide the respondent incase he/she does
not understand nay question. In case of questionnaire, confusion will
discourage the response rate.
It is
argued that question wording is a significant problem in survey research. It is
important to have a shared vocabulary between the researcher and the
respondent. Wording should not be too simple or too difficult to understand. Jargon
should be avoided. Words like social interaction, socialization, alienation may
be common words for sociologist but difficult for ordinary man to understand.
Now it
is established that 5% of the population are functionally illiterate.
If majority of the samples come from a particular
group, like doctors, laborers, teachers, etc. use their vocabulary. E.g. if you
use words like secondary and higher secondary, for ordinary people in Pakistan,
they will not understand it. Instead if you use words like metric ad
intermediate etc, will be easily understood.
Please
do not ask
1. Leading questions
In most of the TV interviews the word ‘don’t
you agree’ or ‘is it not the case’ are mostly used. The purpose is to lead the
respondent to agree to some particular idea.
If you ask employees of an
organization that ‘don’t you agree that IER is the best place to work, or isn’t
it the case that IER offers the best range of benefits to employees? Rather an
open ended question like what benefits are there in working for IER? Or a
closed ended question like, Does IER offer the following benefits
Pension--------- Accommodation________ Free medical
treatment______ Housing allowance, ______ etc.
2.
Double-Barrel question
A double barrel question is one in which you
ask two questions in one questions e.g.
In the course of your work for IER do you often
travel abroad and do you save a lot of money?
This is confusing.
A person
may travel abroad but not make more money. Or if you ask someone do you know
about the admission policy of IER and what is your opinion about it?
The
person may know but not have any opinion or the person may travel abroad but
not make more money. In many case such questions have a high mortality rate.
3.
Double negatives
It is also advisable to avoid double negatives
like do you think those not over 20
years of age , should not join IER? Here the term ’no’ means what?
4. Hypothetical question
What would you do if… or would you like to
have a high income….. Would you like to marry a beautiful, educated and rich girl_________ etc will always be
answered in yes or desired response.
These
are called ‘slanty’ questions.
5. Secondary information
It is
not advisable to ask someone about someone else’s opinion or about a third
person opinion or request secondary information. For example if you ask a
respondent ‘do you think your brother will vote/ has voted for PPP in the
election? A respondent may not know his brother’s opinion about voting opinion/
voting experience. Yes some factual question like age of your brother, income
(approximately education, residence etc. can be asked.
6. Periodicity
if you ask someone how many days a week he/
she reads newspaper, one a week________
three days____ daily_____ when available ____________ will be more answered than if you ask him/
her
Do you read newspaper regularly________
often_________ frequently___________ are too vague and should be avoided?
